Nitrome Releases “Chisel”

Nitrome released a new game, Chisel, over the weekend. True to form, the latest installment from Nitrome has a unique gameplay mechanic. You play as Chisel, a goofy looking character with a drill for a head, who is tasked with chiseling through planets in order to make them smaller. You press the spacebar to begin drilling, cutting a straight line straight down through the planet. When you pop out of the other side the planet collapses, closing the gap and leaving you with a smaller planet to work with. You use the arrow keys to walk around the planet with the strategy of choosing an entry point that’ll get you the most bang for your buck. If you’re able to cut the planet down to the right size without dying you get to move on to the next level.

New enemies and obstacles are introduced as you make your way from level to level. As the game progresses you have to be smarter about where you make your cuts as the ground, which determines your angle of entry, can have you lined up with enemies inside or on top of the planet. The gameplay and goal remind me a bit of Qix (or Jezzball), in that you’re drawing straight lines to achieve a percentage based goal, and walking around the surface of the planets feels a bit like a 2D version of Super Mario Galaxy. So let’s call this one Qix meets Super Mariox Galaxy, except you know, not… :)

Nitrome does a great job teaching you about the game as you go, using an “in game message system” which teaches you about new additions as they appear, though you’re free to ignore these tips as they only open up if you elect to read them. Clubbing you over the head with all the nuances of the game from the instructions page would have been overkill. This on-demand instructional format makes all the help text extremely palatable and given that most of the game is pretty self-explanatory it’s neatly out of the way but nice to know it’s there if you need it.

My only gripe with the game, and it’s a minor one, is that I can’t start the game from the instructions screen. When you’ve finished reading the instructions, which are appropriately brief, you’re forced to go back to the splash screen and click to start from there. C’mon guys, you’re better than that.

As usual, Chisel is a fun and new game from Nitrome that’s worth wasting some time on, especially given that today’s Monday.